WHAT THE MANIFESTOS SAY 2019 HEALTH AND SOCIAL CARE · 2019. 12. 4. · Green Party and Brexit...

WHAT THE MANIFESTOS SAY 2019HEALTH AND SOCIAL CARE

General Election

MANIFESTO POLICY PROPOSALS HEALTH AND SOCIAL CARE

CONSERVATIVE PARTY MANIFESTO www.vote.conservatives.com/our-plan

LABOUR PARTY MANIFESTO www.labour.org.uk/manifesto

LIBERAL DEMOCRAT PARTY MANIFESTOwww.libdems.org.uk/plan

GREEN PARTY MANIFESTOhttps://campaigns.greenparty.org.uk/manifesto

BREXIT PARTY CONTRACT www.thebrexitparty.org/contract

This document sets out the key commitments on health and social care policy in the 2019 Conservative, Labour, Liberal Democrat, Green Party and Brexit Party national manifestos.


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Adult social care and carersCONSERVATIVES• Build a cross-party consensus to bring

forward an answer that solves the [social care] problem. (p.12)

• Nobody needing care should be forced to sell their home to pay for it. (p.12)

• Additional funding of £1 billion for the year beginning in April 2020. […] confirming this additional funding in every year of the new Parliament. (p.12)

• Extend the entitlement to leave for unpaid carers, […] to one week. (p.12)

• Support the main carer in any household receiving the Universal Credit payment. (p.17)

LABOUR• Build a comprehensive National Care Service

for England […] provide community-based, person-centred support, underpinned by the principles of ethical care and independent living. (p.36)

• Provide free personal care, beginning with investments to ensure that older people have their personal care needs met, with the ambition to extend this provision to all working-age adults. (p.36)

• Develop eligibility criteria that ensures our service works for everyone, including people with complex conditions like dementia. (p.36)

• Ensure no one ever again needs to face catastrophic care costs of more than £100,000 for the care they need in old age, which we will underscore with a lifetime cap on personal contributions to care costs. (p.36)

• Provide additional care packages to support both older people and working-age adults living independently in their own homes. (p.36)

• Double the number of people receiving publicly funded care packages, improve the standard of care provided to them and remove the distinction between health and care needs. (p.36)

• Support autistic people and people with learning disabilities to move out from inappropriate inpatient hospital settings and provide support in their own homes. (p.36)

• Contracts for providing care will not be awarded to organisations that do not pay their fair share of taxes and do not meet our high standards of quality care […] focus will be on the ethical delivery of care that ensures growing public sector provision and providers who meet standards of transparency, compliance and profit capping. (p.36)

• End 15-minute care visits and provide care workers with paid travel time, access to training and an option to choose regular hours. (p.36)

• Increase the Carer’s Allowance to the level of the Jobseeker’s Allowance. (p.74)


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LIBERAL DEMOCRATS• Introducing a cap on the cost of care as

provided for in the Care Act. (p.53)

• Establish a cross-party health and social care convention that builds on the existing body of work from previous conventions, select committees and the 2018 citizens’ assembly to reach agreement on the long-term sustainable funding of a joined-up system of health and social care […] invite patients’ groups, professionals, the public and the governments of Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland to be a part of this work. (p.53)

• Introduce a statutory guarantee of regular respite breaks for unpaid carers, and require councils to make regular contact with carers to offer support and signpost services. (p.59)

• Provide a package of carer benefits such as free leisure centre access, free bus travel for young carers, and self-referral to socially prescribed activities and courses. (p.59)

• Raise the amount people can earn before losing their Carer’s Allowance from £123 to £150 a week, and reduce the number of hours’ care per week required to qualify for it. (p.59)

• Introduce a new requirement for professional regulation of all care home managers, who would also be required to have a relevant qualification. For care staff, […] will set a target that 70 per cent of care staff should have an NVQ level 2 or equivalent (currently

levels are around 50 per cent). […] will provide support for ongoing training of care workers to improve retention and raise the status of caring. (p.58)

• Support the creation of a new Professional Body for Care Workers, to promote clear career pathways with ongoing training and development, and improved pay structures. (p.58)

GREENS• Provide an additional £4.5 billion a year to

fund councils to provide free social care to people over 65 who need support in their own homes. (p.42)

• Ensure nobody who takes times off work in order to care for loved ones, or has an irregular employment record, unjustly struggles to access the state pension. Everyone will receive Universal Basic Income (UBI), at either the adult (£89 per week) or pension (£178 per week) rate. (p.50)

• Continue to pay a full Carers Allowance to carers, on top of the UBI payment. This means that a full-time carer would continue to receive their £3,200 Carers Allowance, plus £4,630 in UBI payments a year. (p.50)

BREXIT PARTY• Invest in the NHS and social care: we need

to keep investing in these essential and treasured public services — with more medical staff and less waste. (p11)


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Public healthCONSERVATIVES• Promote the uptake of vaccines via [a]

national vaccination strategy. (p.11)

• Extend social prescribing and expand the new National Academy of Social Prescribing. (p.11)

• Extend healthy life expectancy by five years by 2035. (p.11)

• Tackle drug-related crime, and at the same time take a new approach to treatment so we can reduce drug deaths and break the cycle of crime linked to addiction. (p.18)

LABOUR• Introduce a Future Generations Well-being

Act, enshrining health aims in all policies and a new duty for NHS agencies to collaborate with directors of public health. (p. 34)

• Invest more than £1 billion in public health and recruit 4,500 more health visitors and school nurses […] increase mandated health visits, ensure new mothers can have access to breastfeeding support and introduce mental health assessments in a maternal health check six weeks after birth. (p.34)

• Invest in children’s oral health, tackle childhood obesity and extend the sugar tax to milk drinks […] ban fast-food restaurants near schools and enforce stricter rules around the advertising of junk food and levels of salt in food. (p.34)

• Urgently put in place a vaccination action plan to regain our measles-free status in WHO listings. (p.34)

• Fully fund sexual health services and roll out PrEP medication. (p.34)

• Address drug-related deaths, alcohol-related health problems and the adverse impacts of gambling as matters of public health, treated accordingly in expanded addiction support services […] alcoholic drinks will be labelled with clear health warnings […] review the evidence on minimum pricing. (p.34)

• Implement a Tobacco Control Plan and fund smoking cessation services. (p.34)

• Establish a Royal Commission to develop a public health approach to substance misuse, focusing on harm reduction rather than criminalisation. (p.44)

• Uphold women’s reproductive rights and decriminalise abortions. (p.48)

• Ensure fair compensation for the victims of contaminated blood products across the UK. (p.48)


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LIBERAL DEMOCRATS• Introduce a wellbeing budget, following the

example of New Zealand, basing decisions on what will improve wellbeing as well as on economic and fiscal indicators. (p.27)

• Appoint a Minister for Wellbeing, who will make an annual statement to Parliament on the main measures of wellbeing and the effects of government policies on them. (p.27)

• Introduce wellbeing impact assessments for all government policies. (p.27)

• Prioritise government spending on the things that matter most to people’s wellbeing – both now and in the future – including:

˚ Access to high-quality mental health and other health services.

˚ Community services that tackle loneliness and prevent isolation.

˚ Reducing Adverse Childhood Experiences by investing further in services during pregnancy and the first two years of a child’s life. (p.27)

• Give schools a statutory duty to promote the wellbeing of their pupils as part of the inspection framework. (p.36)

• Challenge gender stereotyping and early sexualisation, working with schools to promote positive body image and break down outdated perceptions of gender appropriateness of particular academic subjects. (p.36)

• Publish a National Wellbeing Strategy, which puts better health and wellbeing for all at the heart of government. Ministers from all departments will be responsible for implementing the strategy. (p.59)

• Pursue a Health in All Policies approach, as recommended by the World Health Organization. This means that national and local decision making, policies and interventions will only take place after the full impact on people’s mental and physical health has been fully assessed. (p.60)

• Keep public health within local government, where it is effectively joined-up with preventive community services […] re-instate the funding that was cut from public health budgets by the Conservatives and join up services across public health and the NHS. (p.60)

• Introduce a new statutory requirement for public health interventions evaluated as cost effective by NICE to be available to qualifying people, within three months of publication of guidance. (p.60)

• Develop a strategy to tackle childhood obesity including restricting the marketing of junk food to children, and closing loopholes in the Soft Drinks Industry Levy […] extend it to include juice- and milk-based drinks that are high in added sugar. (p.60)

• Guarantee that every child who is eligible for free school meals has access to at least an hour a day of free activities to improve their health and wellbeing. Local authorities will be funded through the public health grant to deliver the ‘Wellbeing Hour’ according to local needs.(p.60)

• Require labelling for food products, in a readable font size, and publication of information on calorie, fat, sugar and salt content in restaurants and takeaways. (p.60)


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• Restrict how products high in fat, salt and sugar are marketed and advertised by multiple retailers. (p.60)

• Reduce smoking rates by introducing a new levy on tobacco companies to contribute to the costs of health care and smoking cessation services. (p.60)

• Introduce minimum unit pricing for alcohol, taking note of the impact of the policy in Scotland. We will also ensure universal access to addiction treatment. (p.60)

• Fund public information campaigns to tackle stigmas within specific communities. (p.60)

• Address the scandal of women with learning disabilities dying an average 20 years younger, setting a national target for reducing this gap […] ensure people with learning disabilities can access screening, prevention, health and care services fairly. (p.60)

• Review on the basis of evidence any unscientific and discriminatory practices aimed solely at LGBT+ people, such as around blood donations. (p.60)

• Ensure Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis (PrEP) for HIV prevention is fully available to all who need it on the NHS. (p.60)

• Move the departmental lead on drugs policy to the Department of Health and Social Care, and invest in more addiction services and support for drug users. (p.60)

• Divert people arrested for possession of drugs for personal use into treatment, and imposing civil penalties rather than imprisonment. (p.60)

• Adopt a public health approach to the epidemic of youth violence: identifying risk factors and treating them, rather than just focusing on the symptoms. This means police, teachers, health professionals, youth workers and social services all working closely together to prevent young people falling prey to gangs and violence. (p.69)

• Provide a £500 million ring-fenced youth services fund to local authorities to repair the damage done to youth services and enable them to deliver a wider range of services, reach more young people and improve training for youth workers. (p.69)

• Embed Trauma-informed Youth Intervention Specialists in all Major Trauma Centres. (p.69)

GREENS• Focus funding to enable the construction

of new community health centres, bringing health services closer to people’s homes. These health centres will pioneer preventative healthcare, helping people live healthier lifestyles so that they are less likely to fall ill. (p.54)

• Focus funding to provide better reproductive health services. Ensure that all forms of birth control are free, to give women a real choice of the birth control that works best for them. (p.55)

• Ensure that PrEP – a daily pill which prevents HIV infection – is provided by NHS England without delay. (p.55)


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• Extend the EU’s Charter of Fundamental Rights to give women in all EU countries access to legal, safe and affordable abortion services. (p.62)

• Support employers to explore the benefits of offering menstruation and menopausal leave to workers. (p.62)

• Improve access to high quality care during pregnancy and ensure that all women are entitled to the care of a single midwife through prenatal care, birth and the first month of post-natal care. (p.62)

• Baby clinics will be expanded, so that women can get access to health visitors and take their babies for regular check-ups at a location and time that is convenient for them. (p.62)

• Increase funding for areas of the NHS heavily relied on by Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans, Intersex, Queer and Asexual (LGBTIQA+) people, including trans healthcare, gender identity clinics, HIV treatment and mental health provision. (p.63)

• Properly fund training to support the delivery of comprehensive, age appropriate Personal Health and Sexual Education (PHSE) lessons in schools covering all aspects of sex and relationships, with a focus on consent. (p.63)

• Fund schools to provide free ecofriendly sanitary products to pupils. (p.63)

• Invest in education and treat problematic drug use as a health issue, not a crime, building on the successful approaches pioneered in numerous other countries. (p.67)

• Make heroin available on prescription after a medical assessment by a doctor and provide safe facilities for users who inject drugs, building on the success of drug consumption rooms in other countries which have encouraged more problematic drug users into treatment. (p.67)

• Prohibit commercial advertising of alcohol (and all other drugs) and introduce minimum unit pricing, which has been shown to reduce harmful drinking in Scotland. (p.67)


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Mental healthCONSERVATIVES• Treat mental health with the same urgency as

physical health. (p.11)

• Legislate so that patients suffering from mental health conditions, including anxiety or depression, have greater control over their treatment. (p.11)

LABOUR• Provide an additional £1.6 billion a year to

ensure new standards for mental health are enshrined in the NHS constitution ensuring access to treatments is on a par with that for physical health conditions. (p.33)

• Invest £2 billion to modernise hospital [mental health] facilities and end the use of inappropriate, out-of-area placements. (p.33)

• Implement in full the recommendations set out in the independent review of the Mental Health Act. (p.33)

• Invest more in eating disorders services and ensure NICE guidelines on eating disorders are implemented. (p.33)

• Improve access to psychological therapies to ensure they deliver the quality care patients deserve […] ensure provision of 24/7 crisis services. (p.34)

• Our £845 million plan for Healthy Young Minds will more than double the annual spending on children and adolescent mental health services. (p.34)

• Establish a network of open access mental health hubs to enable more children to access mental health and recruit almost 3,500 qualified counsellors to guarantee every child access to school counsellors. (p.34)

LIBERAL DEMOCRATS• Ensure that all teaching staff have the training

to identify mental health issues and that schools provide immediate access for pupil support and counselling. (p.35)

• Ensure there is a specific individual responsible for mental health in schools, who would provide a link to expertise and support for children experiencing problems. (p.35)

• Require universities to make mental health services accessible to their students, and introduce a Student Mental Health Charter through legislation. (p.37)

• Transforming mental health by treating it with the same urgency as physical health. (p.52)

• Ring-fence funding from the 1p Income Tax rise to provide additional investment in mental health. (p.54)

• Introduce further mental health maximum waiting time standards, starting with children’s services, services for people with eating disorders, and severe and enduring conditions. (p.54)

• Increase access to a broader range and number of clinically effective talking therapies so that hundreds of thousands more people can receive this support, with equal access for older people, BAME and LGBT+ patients, and people with autism or learning disabilities. (p.54)


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• Make prescriptions for people with chronic mental health conditions available for free on the NHS, as part of our commitment to review the entire schedule of exemptions for prescription charges. (p.54)

• Transform perinatal mental health support for those who are pregnant, new mothers and those who have experienced miscarriage or stillbirth, and help them get early care when needed. (p.54)

• Ensure every new mother gets a dedicated maternal postnatal appointment as well as introducing other measures to tackle under-diagnosis of maternal physical and mental health problems. (p.55)

• Implement all the recommendations of the Wessely review of the Mental Health Act, including bringing forward the necessary investment to modernise and improve inpatient settings and ambulances […] apply the principle of ‘care not containment’ to mental health, while ensuring an emergency bed is always available if needed. (p.55)

• Ensure that no one in crisis is turned away, improving integration between mental health trusts, local authorities and hospitals, to promote a holistic approach to improving mental health services […] work to make mental health crisis services 24-hour, including mental health liaison teams in all hospitals, and ending the use of police cells for people facing a mental health crisis. (p.55)

• Ensure those admitted to hospital for mental ill-health are able to be treated close to home for all but the most specialist mental health services, minimising the use of hospital admissions through high-quality community and housing support for people who don’t need an admission. (p.55)

• Ensure that all frontline public service professionals, including in schools and universities, receive better training in mental health, and add a requirement for mental health first aiders in the Health and Safety First Aid Regulations. (p.55)

• Fully introduce Sir Stephen Bubb’s ‘Time For Change’ report recommendations and ensure that Assessment and Treatment Units are closed urgently. (p.55)

• Tackle stigma against mental ill-health through investment in public education including Time to Talk. (p.55)

• Require that a fair proportion of all public funding for health research should be focused on research into mental ill-health, including research into the different mental health needs of different communities within the UK such as BAME and LGBT+ people. (p.55)

• Improve mental health support and treatment within the criminal justice system and ensure continuity of mental health care and addiction treatment in prison and the community. (p.55)


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• Regard every suicide as preventable […] take an evidence led approach to prevention, making it easier for people at risk to get the help they need, and equipping more members of the public with the skills and confidence to talk about suicide. (p.56)

• Ensure that LGBT+ inclusive mental health services receive funding and support. (p.56)

• Develop a scheme to reward employers who invest in the mental wellbeing of their employees, piloting reduced business rates for employers who support employees’ mental wellbeing and provide mental health first aid training to staff. (p.56)

• Introduce a target of one hour for handover of people suffering from mental health crisis from police to mental health services and support the police to achieve adequate levels of training in mental health response. (p.69)

GREENS• Focus funding to enable major improvements

to mental health care to truly put it on an equal footing with physical health care, and ensure that everyone who needs it can access evidence-based mental health therapies within 28 days. (p.55)

• Ensure that tailored and specific mental health provision is readily available for the particular needs of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans, Intersex, Queer and Asexual (LGBTIQA+) and Black Minority Ethnic (BME) communities, children and adolescents, and older people. (p.55)

• Train school staff in spotting and stopping sexual harassment and bullying, to ensure that schools are safe places for all to learn in. (p.63)


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Funding, staffing and structureCONSERVATIVES• [Give] the NHS its biggest ever cash boost,

with 20 hospital upgrades and 40 new hospitals, while delivering 50,000 more nurses and 6,000 more doctors and creating an extra 50 million general practice appointments a year. (p.2)

• Within the first three months of our new term, […] will enshrine in law [a] fully funded, long-term NHS plan. (p.9)

• Build and fund 40 new hospitals over the next 10 years. (p.10)

• End unfair hospital car parking charges by making parking free for those in greatest need, including disabled people, frequent outpatient attenders, parents of sick children staying overnight and staff working night shifts. (p.11)

• Migrants will contribute to the NHS – and pay in before they can receive benefits. (p.20)

• Qualified doctors, nurses and allied health professionals with a job offer from the NHS, who have been trained to a recognised standard, and who have good working English, will be offered fast-track entry, reduced visa fees and dedicated support to come to the UK with their families. (p.20)

• Increase the NHS surcharge paid by those from overseas. (p.11)

• Double the budget for our health tourism enforcement unit. […] continue to offer free emergency care to anyone who needs it. (p.23)

LABOUR• Increase expenditure across the health sector

by an average 4.3 per cent a year. (p.32)

• Repeal the Health and Social Care Act and reinstate the responsibilities of the Secretary of State to provide a comprehensive and universal healthcare system […] end the requirement on health authorities to put services out to competitive tender. (p.32)

• Ensure services are delivered in-house and also bring subsidiary companies back in-house. (p.32)

• Halt the […] sale of NHS land and assets. (p.32)

• Publish an infrastructure plan to return NHS England to the international average level of capital investment and to ensure future decisions are transparent and balanced fairly between every region. (p.32)

• Complete the confirmed hospital rebuilds and invest more in primary care settings, modern AI, cyber technology and state-of-the-art medical equipment, including more MRI and CT scanners. (p.32)

• Providing free annual NHS dental check-ups. (p.32)

• Ensure our NHS becomes a net-zero carbon service. (p.32)


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• Develop a planned model of joined-up community care, enabling people to live longer lives in better health in their own homes. (p.33)

• Allocate a greater proportion of overall funding to close-to-home health services and build interdisciplinary, patient-focused services across primary care, mental health and social care. (p.33)

• Expand GP training places to provide resources for 27 million more appointments each year and ensure community pharmacy is supported. (p.33)

• Invest, train and develop NHS staff throughout their careers […] introduce a training bursary for nurses, midwives and allied health professionals […] remove the obstacles to ethical international recruitment. (p.36)

• Review the tax and pension changes implemented by the [Conservative] government. (p.36)

• Provide mental health support for staff and create a working environment within the NHS that is safe, flexible and free from harassment, bullying or violence. (p.36)

• Ensure that all parts of the NHS, the treatment of patients, the employment of staff and medicine pricing are all fully excluded and protected from any international trade deals. (p.36)

• Abolish prescription charges in England. (p.36)

LIBERAL DEMOCRATS• Move towards single place-based budgets

for health and social care – encouraging greater collaboration between the local NHS and Local Authorities in commissioning […] particularly encourage Clinical Commissioning Groups and Local Councils to collaborate on commissioning, including further use of pooled budgets, joint appointments and joint arrangements, and encourage emerging governance structures for Integrated Care Systems to include local government, and be accountable to them. (p.58)

• Raise £7 billion a year additional revenue which will be ring-fenced to be spent only on NHS and social care services. This revenue will be generated from a 1p rise on the basic, higher and additional rates of Income Tax. (p.53)

• Use this cash to relieve the crisis in social care, tackle urgent workforce shortages, and to invest in mental health and prevention services. (p.53)

• Use £10 billion of our capital fund to make necessary investments in equipment, hospitals, community, ambulance and mental health services buildings, to bring them into the 21st century. (p.53)


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• Commission the development of a dedicated, progressive Health and Care Tax, offset by other tax reductions, on the basis of wide consultation and extensive engagement with the public. The intention is to bring together spending on both services into a collective budget and set out transparently, on people’s payslips, what the Government is spending on health and social care. (p.53)

• Introduce a statutory independent budget monitoring body for health and care, similar to the Office for Budget Responsibility. This would report every three years on how much money the system needs to deliver safe and sustainable treatment and care, and how much is needed to meet the costs of projected increases in demand and any new initiatives – to ensure any changes in services are properly costed and affordable. (p.53)

• End the GP shortfall by 2025 by both training more GPs and making greater appropriate use of nurses, physiotherapists and pharmacists, and also phone or video appointments, where clinically suitable […] want health professionals to have time to talk and to offer holistic care that is linked in with social prescribing within local communities. (p.57)

• Support GPs nurses, physiotherapists, mental health and other professionals to work together across their local areas to provide multi-disciplinary health and care services, to improve appointments outside of normal working hours, including mobile services. (p.57)

• Review the NHS’s future needs for all staff, and produce a national workforce strategy, taking the long view and matching training places to future needs […] take a ‘what works’ approach to improving retention including continuing professional development, better support, and more flexible working and careers. (p.57)

• Target extra help for nursing students, starting with bursaries for specialties where shortages are most acute such as mental health and learning disability nursing, linked to clinical placements in areas that are particularly under-staffed. (p.57)

• Attract and support talented professionals from countries with developed health systems, with an ethical recruitment policy in line with World Health Organization guidance, and make the current registration process more flexible and accessible without lowering standards. (p.57)

• Implement the recommendations of Roger Kline’s report into the lack of diversity in senior management in the NHS and commission a strategic analysis of racial discrimination in the NHS. (p.58)

• Support the changes to the Health and Social Care Act recommended by the NHS, with the objective of making the NHS work in a more efficient and joined-up way, and to end the automatic tendering of services. (p.58)


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GREENS• Increase funding for the NHS by at least £6

billion per year each year, until 2030 (a 4.5 per cent increase on the 2018/2019 NHS Budget), and a further £1 billion a year in nursing higher education, allowing for nursing bursaries to be reinstated. This will constitute a programme of sustained investment, bringing spending of health services in the UK up to northern European averages. (p.54)

• Roll back privatisation of the NHS, through repealing the Health and Social Care Act 2012 and abolishing the internal market. (p.54)

• Replace private sector involvement in the NHS with community leadership… allow local authorities to lead a ‘bottom up’ process, and services will be planned and provided without contracts through Health Boards, which could cover more than one local authority area if there were local support. (p.54)

• Provide stronger powers to Health and Wellbeing Boards to represent the interest of the public in the NHS. (p.54)

• Reinstate the Health Secretary’s duty to provide services throughout England and create a duty to ensure there are enough health and care staff – including nursing – to meet the needs of the population. (p.54)

• Ending the NHS internal market, which has driven up administrative costs in the health service without improving clinical practice, patient care or staff wellbeing. (p.80)

BREXIT PARTY• Invest for better health and care outcomes.

(p.11)

• The NHS must remain a publicly owned, comprehensive service that is free at the point of use. (p.18)

• No privatisation of the NHS; where existing private initiatives have failed to deliver […] return them to public ownership. (p.18)

• Re-open the nursing and midwifery professions to recruitment without the degree requirement, alongside a new nursing qualification in social care. (p.19)

• Introduce 24-hour GP surgeries to relieve the strain in A&E departments. (p.19)

• Have a national debate on our NHS, involving the public alongside MPs, doctors and experts […] discuss ring-fencing the NHS budget and the tax revenues that pay for it. (p.19)


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Access, accountability and transparencyCONSERVATIVES• Improve NHS performance, using [the]

funding settlement to bring down operating waiting times, improve A&E performance and increase cancer survival rates. (p.11)

• In order to help communities cope better with pressures on public services, we will ensure that new GP and school places are delivered ahead of people moving into new housing developments. (p.23)

LABOUR• Ensure patients in deprived and remote

communities will have better access to primary care services. (p.33)

LIBERAL DEMOCRATS• Encourage healthcare professionals to work

in areas where there are shortages, especially inner city and remote rural areas, through our Patient Premium – which would give incentive payments to clinicians. (p.58)

• Address continuing inequalities in health services access faced by same-sex couples, and continue to improve LGBT+ healthcare overall. (p.58)


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DisabilitiesCONSERVATIVES• Make it easier for people with learning

disabilities and autism to be discharged from hospital and improve how they are treated in law. (p.11)

• Provide £74 million over three years for additional capacity in community care settings for those with learning disabilities and autism. (p.12)

• Reduce the number of reassessments [for Universal Credit] a disabled person must go through when a significant change in condition is unlikely (p.17)

• Publish a National Strategy for Disabled People before the end of 2020. This will look at ways to improve the benefits system, opportunities and access for disabled people in terms of housing, education, transport and jobs. (p.17)

• Reduce the disability employment gap. (p.17)

LABOUR• Guarantee universal healthcare by […]

protecting the rights of EU workers, other migrants and refugees and by ensuring all our services are made accessible to BAME, LGBT+ and disabled patients. (p.32)

• Transform the workplace for disabled people by requiring that all employers be trained to better support them, while introducing mandatory disability pay-gap reporting for companies with over 250 employees. (p.68)

• End disability discrimination and update the Equality Act to introduce new specific duties including disability leave, paid and recorded separately from sick leave. (p.68)

• Recommend that the Equality and Human Rights Commission prepare a specific code of practice on reasonable adjustments to supplement existing codes [...] The code will also set timescales for implementation of reasonable adjustments to end the long and distressing delays experienced by disabled workers. (p.68)

• Reinstate the Access to Elected Office Fund to enable disabled people to run for elected office. (p.68)

• Adopt a British Sign Language Act, giving BSL full legal recognition in law. (p.68)

• Stop […] Work Capability and PIP Assessments, which repeatedly and falsely find ill or disabled people fit to work, and make sure all assessments are done in-house. (p.74)

• Increase Employment and Support Allowance by £30 per week for those in the work-related activity group. (p.74)

• Raise the basic rate of support for children with disabilities to the level of Child Tax Credits. (p.74)

• Ensure that severely disabled people without a formal carer receive extra support to enable them to meet the extra costs they inevitably face. (p.74)


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LIBERAL DEMOCRATS• Improve disabled access to public transport

via the Access for All programme. (p.48)

• Increase accessibility to public places and transport by making more stations wheelchair accessible, improving the legislative framework governing blue badges, setting up a benchmarking standard for accessible cities, and banning discrimination by private hire vehicles and taxis. (p.75)

• Introduce a British Sign Language Act to give BSL full legal recognition. (p.75)

GREENS• Introduce job-sharing, at all levels of

government, to make politics more accessible, especially for disabled people and people with caring responsibilities. (p.35)

• Expand the Access to Elected Office Fund to support disabled people to stand for election, and support women, non-binary people and those from minority ethnic backgrounds to stand. (p.35)

• Support councils to better provide housing for disabled people, supporting every council to draw up their own disability housing plans, and work to significantly increase the numbers of homes built to mobility standards over the next five years. (p.42)

• Provide a supplement to the Universal Basic Income for people with disabilities. This will help restore the benefits withdrawn from disabled people over the past ten years, providing more financial security. (p.50)

• Introduce a legal right to independent living for disabled people, overseen by a National Independent Living Support Service. This service will support and empower disabled people who do choose to live independently. (p.63)

• Fully embed the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD) into UK law. This will mean that the unacceptable practices of compulsory treatment, chemical and physical restraint, isolation, and seclusion are made illegal in the UK. (p.63)


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Cancer, diseases, new medicines and technologiesCONSERVATIVES• Find a cure [for dementia] one of [the]

Government’s biggest collective priorities – one of the ‘grand challenges’. This will include doubling research funding into dementia and speeding up trials for new treatments. (p.12)

• Roll out cancer diagnostic machines across 78 hospital trusts to boost early diagnosis. (p.10)

• Overhaul NHS screening and use new technology and mobile screening services to prevent ill health. (p.11)

• Focus on helping patients with multiple conditions to have simplified and more joined-up access to the NHS. (p.11)

• Develop new treatments for serious diseases. (p.11)

• Extend the successful Cancer Drugs Fund into an Innovative Medicines Fund (p.11)

• Improve the early diagnosis and treatment of all major conditions (p.11)

LABOUR• Improve stroke, heart disease and cancer

survival rates by providing earlier diagnosis and improved screening rates. (p.32)

• NHS will be at the forefront of the development of genomics and cell therapies so that patients can benefit from new treatments for cancer and dementia, whilst ensuring the UK continues to lead in medical developments. (p.36)

• Establish a generic drug company. If fair prices are rejected for patented drugs […] will use the Patents Act provisions, compulsory licences and research exemptions to secure access to generic versions, and […] will aim to increase the number of pharmaceutical jobs in the UK. (p.36)

• Play an active role in the medical innovation model. (p.36)

• Progress clinically appropriate prescription of medical cannabis. (p.36)

LIBERAL DEMOCRATS• Increase national spending on research and

development to three per cent of GDP […] publish a roadmap to achieve this ambition by the earliest date possible, via an interim target of 2.4 per cent of GDP by no later than 2027. (p.18)

GREENS• Enable medical scientists to conduct research

on psychoactive drugs to develop new treatments for mental and physical illnesses. (p.67)

BREXIT PARTY• Support investment in medical research

and development. (p.18)


20

End of life careCONSERVATIVES• Support […] hospices, [by] developing the

plans already announced to secure their future, with a £25 million cash injection in August to support 200,000 people at the end of their lives. (p.11)

LIBERAL DEMOCRATS• Provide more choice at the end of life, and

move towards free end-of-life social care, whether people spend their last days at home or in a hospice. (p.59)


21

Armed Forces CovenantCONSERVATIVES• Introduce new legislation to tackle the […]

legal claims that undermine our Armed Forces and further incorporate the Armed Forces Covenant into law. (p.52)

LABOUR• Seek greater consistency in the

implementation of the Armed Forces Covenant by public authorities. (p.101)

LIBERAL DEMOCRATS• Support the Armed Forces Covenant and

ongoing work to support veterans’ mental health. (p.91)


22

Asylum and refugees CONSERVATIVES• Continue to grant asylum and support to

refugees fleeing persecution, with the ultimate aim of helping them to return home if it is safe to do so. (p.23)

LABOUR• Guarantee universal healthcare by […]

protecting the rights of EU workers [and] other migrants and refugees. (p. 32)

• Scrap the 2014 Immigration Act. (p.71)

• End indefinite detention, review the alternatives to the inhumane conditions of detention centres, and close Yarl’s Wood and Brook House. (p.71)

• Refugees will have the right to work, access to public services and will be treated humanely by government at all levels. (p.71)

LIBERAL DEMOCRATS• Make providers of asylum support

accommodation subject to a statutory duty to refer people leaving asylum support accommodation who are at risk of homelessness to the local housing authority. (p.67)

• Give asylum seekers the right to work three months after they have applied, enabling them to work in any role so that they can support themselves, integrate into their communities and contribute through taxation. (p.78)

• Provide safe and legal routes to sanctuary in the UK by resettling 10,000 vulnerable refugees each year and a further 10,000 unaccompanied refugee children from elsewhere in Europe over the next ten years, and expanding family reunion rights. (p.78)

• Fund community-sponsorship projects for refugees, and reward community groups who develop innovative and successful ways of promoting social cohesion. (p.78)

• Offer asylum to people fleeing the risk of violence because of their sexual orientation or gender identification, end the culture of disbelief for LGBT+ asylum seekers and never refuse an LGBT+ applicant on the basis that they could be discreet. (p.78)

• Move asylum policymaking from the Home Office to the Department for International Development and establish a dedicated unit to improve the speed and quality of decision-making. (p.78)

• Provide free basic English lessons to refugees and asylum seekers and scrap the 16 hours-per-week rule with respect to financial support for those unable to work due to insufficient English. (p.78)

• Provide public health services, including maternity services, to people from the moment they arrive in the UK. (p.78)

• Increase the ‘move-on period’ for refugees from 28 days to 60 days. (p.78)


23

GREENS• End the hostile environment which puts

migrants, from the EU and further afield, at risk and increases racism and anti-immigrant sentiment. This will include ending indefinite detention, closing the immigration detention centres and ending the culture of abuse and violence that has prevailed in them. (p.61)

• Bring forward a new humane immigration system with no minimum income rules for visas, full workplace rights for migrants, the right to work for asylum seekers and recourse to public support for migrants and asylum seekers who need it. (p.61)

• Guarantee safe and discreet access to public services such as the police, health and education, so that migrants can access these without fear of being subject to immigration enforcement. (p.61)

• Abolish the draconian powers brought in under the 2014 and 2016 Immigration Acts and scrap health charging for migrants. (p.61)

BREXIT PARTY• Provide a humane welcome for genuine

refugees. (p.16)

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WHAT THE MANIFESTOS SAY 2019 HEALTH AND SOCIAL CARE · 2019. 12. 4. · Green Party and Brexit...

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